Canadian Military Exports
Apparently we Canucks are becoming quite the little arms merchants:
Canada's military exports have more than tripled over the past seven years, a CBC News investigation has learned.
Over the past seven years, Canada has exported $3.6 billion in military goods. Canada now exports more arms and military goods than it imports.
The CBC analysis is based on customs data on exports specifically for military use, such as tanks, rocket launchers and munitions.
The surge in exports has made Canada the sixth-biggest supplier of military goods to the world, according to the most recent report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
The government's last annual report to Parliament, for 2002, showed that military exports had climbed to $678 million from $304 million in 1997.
Of course the real story is just how much we don't know about.
But the full extent of Canada's military exports is hard to track with precision, because for the past four years the federal government has not released annual reports providing detailed information to Parliament.
. . .
Epps cited a recent report by the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based monitoring group, which dropped Canada's transparency rating on arms controls to just above that of Iran.
"Canada's rating is 11 on the scale out of 20 this year and the rating for Iran is 10.5," Epps said. "What does that say to you?"
Add in the fact that weapons sales to the US don't even need a government permit and aren't even tracked and you begin to get the feeling that some of those weapons may be going places they shouldn't; if not directly, then because we don't bother to keep tabs on them after we've sold them to people who could be middlemen.
Still, its nice to know at least one industry doesn't appear to be hurt by the high dollar.
